Milo Butler Highway paving should be done ‘fairly quickly’

Minister of Public Works Desmond Bannister yesterday defended the government’s decision to pave the Milo Butler Highway, asserting that the paving should be completed “fairly quickly”.

Speaking to reporters outside the Ministry of Public Works, Bannister said, “That highway has one of the highest traffic counts of any road in this country.

“If you go on that highway from 8 a.m. in the morning until about 10 a.m., you will see a constant line of traffic so it’s incumbent on us to ensure that that road is very, very safe for the driving public.

“When our engineers checked it, they were concerned about a number of factors and so it was important for them, for us, to have it repaved and it’s easier to repave that than many other roads in New Providence because we don’t have [obstructions]. We have pipes, etc. under the highway.”

Bannister said representatives from all the utility companies “go by road through New Providence” every Monday to “do whatever remedial works they have” before paving of any road.

He said there are no challenges with the highway “so we are able to get that done fairly quickly”.

“We are able to ensure that the public that uses that highway has a safe driving experience,” the minister said.

“Just for the record, whatever road we pave, we have kickbacks. When we paved Sea Breeze, we had kickbacks and look at it now. Everywhere we go, we are having challenges as people don’t understand the importance of us making sure that the driving experience is safe and that’s what our job is.”

Last month, the Ministry of Public Works announced that the paving of the highway would begin on April 23, 2019 and would last 12 working days.